It's really interesting how much cross-fertilisation goes on between cultures. I guess Goa is one of the places that has happened. The first time I heard a raga was in a geography lesson at school, we had a great geography teacher who had taught in India, and he played us a video of a raga, I still remember the musicians were playing sitting in a boat on a river or lake, but I have no idea now what it was! That particular teacher used to make his own movies for his lessons, from locations all over the world, so perhaps he even made the movie. That would have been a super-8 film, rather than video tape. I do remember being transported by the music and really liking the raga, it was like nothing I had ever heard before; I was about 12 or 13 at the time.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n91Vhdrrkss
I was lucky enough to see Ravi a couple of times, both in the north of England, one time was at the Sheffield octagon, I can't remember the other, perhaps in Leeds or Manchester, both performances were fantastic and blew me away. Much better live than listening to a record!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWPLaY9SyOY
From one master, to another! I lived in Leeds for a few years and used to listen to Allan in various incarnations, I didn't find out till years later that he had grown up in Bradford, which is just up the road. In this video, there's a bit of classic Holdsworth starting at 32 minutes in...
All hail the jewel in the lotus
